DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Find_The_Real

Hello Pickle, I hope you get it sorted. Is the loan from Santander for the car a fixed term personal loan or a HP agreement on the car as it can make a difference on what action they can take.

Pickle29

Hi, it is a fixed term loan
Sc previously said they couldn't take the car but Santander said it would go to court and a judge would decide!
I will ring sc today and see what they say!
Horrible, not slept, stressed out, will have to go to work late so that I can sort this out!!!

Sazzie23

Hi Pickle

If ifs not secured on the house or the car I think they are just A N Other creditor and will treated the same as the rest. they sound horrid but I'm glad you could come on here and share.

As any creditor, they could go to court but I suspect would be unlikely to get far, I thinks it's the DMP startup teeth troubles where some creditors try it on. I'm sure you'll be on the phone to SC early doors. Let us know how you get on.

Well done for sticking to budget for Christmas.

NaughtySpot

Pickle29 wrote: »

Hi, it is a fixed term loan
Sc previously said they couldn't take the car but Santander said it would go to court and a judge would decide!
I will ring sc today and see what they say!
Horrible, not slept, stressed out, will have to go to work late so that I can sort this out!!!

Phone SC today, please try not to worry (easier said than done, I know).

They are playing the heavy mob, which is horrible. There is no court in the land that will side with them while you are making regular payments and servicing your debt. I'm sure SC will tell you to ignore them and just carry on doing what you are doing.

Let us know how you get on.

Find_The_Real

As per usual the person you spoke to it talking out their a*** then as they can't legally take the car off you and sell it. Obviously they are just trying to get you to pay more by giving you bad information.

You could send them this letter making it into your own from National Debtline adding in the fact you are with SC and mentioning FOS. I would also head the letter as a complaint as they have to investigate it then. You are paying what you can through a recognised debt charity so the court would take a dim view from their action, if it were me I would start complaining instead of giving into them, but that is just a totally personal choice, you have to do what is best for you. Good luck.

High Street,
Newtown,
Kent
R21 4RH

December 19, 2013

The Loan Company
Company House,
Church Street,
Newtown,
Kent,
R1 7HG

Dear Sir/Madam

Acc/Ref No

Thank you for your letter of DD-MM-YYYY. We are very disappointed that we seem unable to reach a
satisfactory compromise in this case. As we have already explained, we can only afford £_____ per month at
the present time. This is the only realistic payment proposal bearing in mind the enclosed personal budget
sheet.

You have stated in correspondence your intention to commence proceedings in the county court against us.

The commencement of legal proceedings under such circumstances could be counter to the ‘Overriding
Objectives’ of the new Civil Procedure Rules. You will be aware that the Overriding Objectives underpin
everything the court does. Moreover, paragraph 4 of the Protocols Practice Direction states that in cases not
covered by an approved pre-action protocol, the court will expect the parties “to act reasonably……. in trying
to avoid the necessity for the start of proceedings”.

We would suggest that your refusal to accept our offer could be viewed as unreasonable and we would ask the
court to consider this matter with reference to the Overriding Objectives.

The offer of £_____ is of course still open to you to accept.

Yours faithfully
Mr A N Other

Growurown

Pickle29 wrote: »

Hi, it is a fixed term loan
Sc previously said they couldn't take the car but Santander said it would go to court and a judge would decide!
I will ring sc today and see what they say!
Horrible, not slept, stressed out, will have to go to work late so that I can sort this out!!!

SC wouldn't take on our car loan either because it was an HP agreement. So that was paid in full first and not included in the DMP and all the other creditors had to have less money so we could cover the car until it was paid it off. Hope you get it sorted Pickle.

Sazzie23 wrote: »

GUO good points, life could be worse and the review should give you the option to adjust where needed. You can bring it forward I think without too much trouble if you need to?

Yes I could but we decided to just manage with what we've got until pay day as it was only a few days to cope with. I think we have got a bit slack recently with our budgeting so I feel a New Year's resolution coming on.:D

StepChange_Private_Messages

Pickle29 wrote: »

Hi
We have today received a letter from Santander saying they are taking legal proceedings and not accepting our DMP. When I rang them (feeling brave and stepchange had closed), Santander said it was because:
A because we are home owners
B because we are not making half of the Monthly payment!
They have said my options are
1 Sell the car (which we purchased with the fixed term loan via the garage) to pay off the loan
2 Surrender the car and they will sell at auction
3 nothing. - and they wil take legal action which could result in forcing us to sell our car, or putting a charge on the house
4 pay the arrears through a payment plan with them direct ( which would involve us paying less to the others in our DMP )

Our view is to do option 4, my hubby travels 70 miles a day to work, no public transport, shift worker and we need the car.

I just wondered if other people had dealt with one creditor outside the DMP, will stepchange liase with our other creditors? ( whilst we are paying off the arrears, this will be a reduction of £200 per month in total for 3 months, then £100 less than currently from April) for the remaining 6 creditors
What reaction will I get?

Any advice gratefully received. I really thought we had turned a corner, I knew Santander had not accepted the DMP but stepchange said not to worry and we would continue paying them, but today they terminated my agreement! I find them really aggressive and came off the phone and bawled my eyes out! I'm ringing stepchange tomorrow but just want to get them off my back.
Thank you

Hi there,

I hope you don't mind me jumping in I saw you were worried about the letter from Santander and thought I could be of help. Basically they haven't said anything that's technically wrong but they've made it sound much more immediate.

If you're not paying half of the monthly payment that will be because it has been recommended by us after a budget assessment. And if you were to increase your payment to Santander you may risk falling behind with more key priority bills.

As it is you are doing exactly the right thing by maintaining the DMP payments. It may be that Santander need to see a copy of your budget to see you cannot increase the DMP payment.

Please give us a call but I hope this helps in the meantime.

Thanks,
Jess

Time_to_face_the_music

Pickle29 wrote: »

Hi, it is a fixed term loan
Sc previously said they couldn't take the car but Santander said it would go to court and a judge would decide!
I will ring sc today and see what they say!
Horrible, not slept, stressed out, will have to go to work late so that I can sort this out!!!

Hi Pickle, I hope you spoke to StepChange and got this sorted. Santander are just bullying you into offering them preferential treatment over your other creditors :mad:


I have officially finished work though my actual redundancy date is not until 31st December, am on a combination of annual leave and bank holidays until then. I feel such a sense of relief and can't wait until my redundancy payment comes through and I can damage some debts! Until then today's milestone is getting the debt under £45K :j


Hope everyone is doing ok and getting ready for Christmas? It can be really tough at this time of the year for many people and especially those in debt, so please do not feel alone if you are struggling with the spending pressures, come out of lurkdom and join us here for advice and support

Pickle29

Hi everyone
Just wanted to say a really big thank you for all your support. I've had an awful 24 hours, but... I rang stepchange this morning and they were lovely as usual. Their advice was keep with the DMP, don't pay Santander anything differently, they are bullies and sc will note their logs about their behaviour.

Sc said until we actually get legal proceedings, carry on as we are - sc don't think a judge will take the car from us as we paying what we can, if we receive any paperwork - forward to sc and also ring them for advice. Basically, if we take Santander out of the DMP, the others won't like it and it could have negative repercussions for us.

We are both really worried, but know that we can't do it alone,
I'm really not strong enough at the moment to deal with all this, so I'm taking sc advice and continuing with our plan with sc advice and support

I do believe Santander will go all the way as they are so horrible but I will keep making the payments and keep you informed.

Thanks again everyone, I couldn't do this without you xx

Murphy2011

Hi Pickle29, I hope you are feeling a bit better after talking to SC, I agree that S are probably just pushing your buttons but it doesn't make it any less frightening. I noticed that you said you aren't strong enough to deal with this at the moment, I hope you don't mind me asking but from personal experience with severe depression I know that creditors do have to make allowances for clients with such issues. If you are struggling it might be worth talking to your Dr and also SC, they might be able to give you some additional reassurance. Sorry if I am way off here but your post rang some bells for me re my situation.
On a personal and lighter note, SC statement went into the £50k's today!!! And I know its accurate because everything has kindly defaulted me so no charges/interest!!! Yay!!